Best Golfers from Every State: Maryland Golf and Fred Funk

We continue our best golfer series by checking out Maryland Golf. The honor ends up going to Fred Funk.

If you take a look at the start of Fred Funk’s career, there is no way you would ever think that he would end up being the top Maryland Golf product. Cut from the University of Maryland Golf Team, transferred around, and then coached for several years.

Once he started coaching, that is a place that many players would end up staying at. Enjoying a career as a coach. Fred Funk didn’t follow that route though. After coaching at Maryland (where he had returned to finish out his college golfing career) for the majority of the 1980s, Funk finally landed back on the PGA Tour in 1989.

The 1990s would be when Fred Funk would establish himself as the top Maryland Golf Product.

He would win five times throughout the decade, finding the most success at the Buick Challenge. He nearly won the event three times in a four year period. I say nearly because after winning in 1995, he would lose in a playoff in both 1996 and 1998.

The biggest win of his professional PGA career was also the most unlikely. At 49 years old, Fred Funk would win the 2005 Players Championship, becoming the oldest to do so at the event.

For all the people out there that think you have to bomb it off the tee to be successful, Funk provides a strong antithesis to that. Consistently one of the shortest off the tee, Funk was also one of the straightest, if not the straightest to ever do it. Over a 14 year period, Funk was #1 in accuracy seven times, while ranking in the top five for 13 of the 14 years.

Although he wasn’t able to win a PGA Tour major, Funk’s success would continue to grow as he got to the Champions Tour. He would win a senior major in 2008, 2009, and 2010. His success across all levels of competition has earned him some serious dough throughout his career, as he ranks in the top 40 in PGA Tour winnings, and in the top 25 on the Champions Tour.

What’s insane is how close Funk has been to being the greatest major winner on the Champions Tour. He only has three major wins, but when you look at how close he has been throughout the years, the numbers are staggering. Five second-place finishes, two third-place, a fourth, two fifths, a sixth, two sevenths, and three ninths.

The majority of these came between 2007 and 2013, where along with all three wins he finished in the top five on nine other occurrences.

Fred Funk joins the list of best golfers, sliding in next to some golfers that he played against plenty of times, including Hal Sutton and Paul Azinger.

When you take into account everything Fred Funk did in his career, from playing and coaching in college, paired with his success on both the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour, it’s easy to name him as the best Maryland Golf Product.